Internet Draft Richard Hartmann
Independent Submission
Intended status: Informational
Expires: October 23, 2011
Updates: 1459, 2812, 2813
April 23, 2011
Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL
draft-hartmann-default-port-for-irc-via-tls-ssl-07
Abstract
This document describes the commonly accepted practice of listening
on TCP port 6697 for incoming IRC connections encrypted via TLS/SSL.
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Hartmann [Page 1]Internet Draft Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL April 23, 2011Table of Contents
1. Rationale ..................................................... 3
2. Technical Details ............................................. 3
2.1. Connection Establishment ................................. 3
2.2. Why Not STARTTLS ......................................... 3
2.3. Certiticate Details ...................................... 4
2.3.1. Server Certificate .................................. 4
2.3.2. Client Certificate .................................. 4
3. Security Considerations ....................................... 4
4. IANA Considerations ........................................... 5
5. Informative References ........................................ 5
5. Normative References .......................................... 5
6. Acknowledgements .............................................. 6
Hartmann [Page 2]Internet Draft Default Port for IRC via TLS/SSL April 23, 20111. Rationale
Although system port assignments for both plain text (TCP/UDP port
194) and TLS/SSL [RFC5246] encrypted (TCP/UDP port 994) IRC traffic
exist [IANALIST], it is common practice amongst IRC networks not to
use them for reasons of convenience and general availability on sys-
tems where no root access is granted or desired.
IRC networks have defaulted to listening on TCP port 6667 for plain
text connections for considerable time, now. This is covered by the
IRCU assignment of TCP/UDP ports 6665-6669.
Similar consensus has been reached within the IRC community about
listening on TCP port 6697 for incoming IRC connections encrypted via
TLS/SSL.
2. Technical Details2.1. Connection Establishment
An IRC client connects to an IRC server. Immediately after that, a
normal TLS/SSL handshake takes place. Once the TLS/SSL connection
has been established, a normal IRC connection is established via the
tunnel. Optionally, the IRC server may set a specific umode for the
client, marking it as using TLS/SSL. Again optionally, an IRC server
might offer the option to create channels in such a way that only
clients connected via TLS/SSL may join.
For details on how IRC works, see [RFC1459], [RFC2810], [RFC2811],
[RFC2812], [RFC2813]. Please note that IRC is extremely fragmented
and implementation details can vary wildly. Most implementations
regard the latter RFCs as suggestions, not as binding.
2.2. Why Not STARTTLS
Due to the highly asynchronous nature of IRC, everything other than
suspending the whole connection, running STARTTLS and resuming the